Definition and Examples of Literary Terms

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Spondee

Definition of Spondee

A metrical foot, spondee is a beat in a poetic line which consists of two accented syllables (stressed/stressed) or DUM-DUM stress pattern. Spondee is a poetic device that is not very common, as other metrical feet like iamb and trochee. We rarely find poems written in spondee alone; however, poets use spondee by combining other metrical feet. For instance, a word “faithful” contains spondee. If you say this word loudly, you would notice that you are putting an equal amount of stress on both syllables “faith” and “ful.”

Features of Spondee

It is one of the most commonly used five metrical feet, including iambic meter, trochaic meter, dactylic meter and anapestic meter. It rarely occurs in poetic forms. Also, usually poet do not use spondaic meter in the entire poem, as it does not add a basis to metrical line. Therefore, they combine it with other metrical patterns – a combination which changes the pace of a poem. Since it is an irregular feet, it does not add high structure or rhythm to a verse.

Opposite to Pyrrhic Foot

Spondee contains two long or accented syllables (stressed/stressed), while pyrrhic meter contains two short or unaccented syllables (unstressed/unstressed) in a quantitative meter, which is opposite to spondee. For example, see pyrrhic syllable in bold in this line: “To a green thought in a green shade.” We generally find pyrrhic meter in classical Greek poetry, whereas we find spondee in the modern prosodic system.

Examples of Spondee from Literature

Example 1

By the shore of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big–Sea–Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,…
All the air was full of freshness,
All the earth was bright and joyous,
And before him, through the sunshine,Westward toward the neighboring forest…
Burning, singing in the sunshine.

(The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow)

Longfellow has written this poem in tetrameter, which means the lines of this poem contains four beats in which three beats are of spondee and one of trochee. Here, the spondaic feet are underlined.

Example 2

Break, break, break,
On thy cold greystones, O Sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me.

(Break, Break, Break by Alfred Lord Tennyson)

This is the most popular example of spondaic meter. Look at the first two lines of this stanza. Three consecutive spondaic meters are underlined. Read out these lines aloud, and you would notice both syllables are using equal stress pattern.

Example 3

If Idoprove her haggard,
Though that her jesses were my dear heart-strings,

This is a very good example of spondaic meter, where we can see double spondee in the first line “If I, and do prove,” and in the second line “heart-strings.”

Example 4

Landscape plotted and pieced–fold, fallow, and plough;
And alltrades, their gear and tackle and trim…
He fathers–forth whose beauty is past change

(Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins)

Hopkins uses heavily spondaic meter in this poem. The second line in this excerpt contains two consecutive accented syllables, “all” and “trades.” Then, the third line also uses spondee “fathers-forth.”

Example 5

Cry, cry! Troyburns, or élse let Hélen gó.

(Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare)

Shakespeare begins these lines with double spondees. See there is a stress on both syllables of word “cry” and then stress is on two syllables “Troy burns.”

Example 6

Whitefounts falling in the courts of the sun
And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run

(Lepanto by G. K. Chesterton)

In this example, the first line contains spondee in first two syllables. However, we do not see the use of this meter in the entire poem.

Function of Spondee

The purpose of using spondaic meter is to emphasize on particular words and give heightened feelings, or provide emotional experience to the readers by converting a normal expression into dramatic form. It also makes sense more compact and compressed. Though spondee does not add much rhythm, it adds feelings of expectancy in a verse. In addition, it governs both individual couplet and entire verse, and makes a poetic line structured in modern poetry, while on the other hand spondee has become more experimental.